Georg Joseph Kamel
| Georg Joseph Kamel | |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 April 1661 Brno, Moravia |
| Died |
2 May 1706 (aged 45) Manila, Philippines |
| Fields | botany, zoology, natural history |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | KAMEL |
| Author abbrev. (zoology) | KAMEL |
Georg Joseph Kamel (21 April 1661, Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic – 2 May 1706, Manila, Philippines), also known as Jiří Josef Kamel (Czech), Georgius Josephus Camellus (Latin) or Jorge Camel (Spanish), was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist and naturalist known for producing first comprehensive accounts of the Philippine flora and fauna and for introducing Philippine nature to the European learned world. A number of Kamel's treatises were published in the Philosophical Transactions, while his descriptions of Philippine flora appeared as an appendix to the third volume of John Ray's Historia Plantarum.
Several plants were named in Kamel's honour, though in his adopted homeland - the Philippines he was mostly forgotten.
Carl Linnaeus named the well known genus of flowering plants Camellia in Kamel's honour. The American botanist Elmer Drew Merrill named the Eugenia kamelii after Kamel.
Kamel was born in the city of Brno in the Margraviate of Moravia, governed by the Kingdom of Bohemia, now the Czech Republic.
He was trained as a lay brother pharmacist at the Jesuit College in Brno. On November 12, 1682 he entered the Society of Jesus, spending his novitiate in Brno and his exams in Krems. In 1685 he was sent as an assistant apothecary to the Holy Trinity College in Jindřichův Hradec, but was soon promoted and moved to the pharmacy of St. Vittus in Český Krumlov in 1686.
...
Wikipedia